Big Business and Society

2nd Industrial Revolution

Focused on modern transportation and communication; Allowed national and international markets to open; Electricity improved efficient in factories

Invention

Phonograph; Kodak camera; Cash register; Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell

Invented the telephone

Locomotive

Established America’s 4 time zones; Regulated railway travel and transport

Rails

First big business; Stimulated economy; Employed tens of thousands

John D. Rockefeller

Created Standard oil and gained control of 90% of the nation’s oil refining using horizontal integration.

Horizontal Integration

A strategy involving the acquisition or merger of another company at the same production stage

Andrew Carnegie

Controlled all the steps of steel production using vertical integration; Cut costs of steel, allowing for more machine, rail, and industrial production.

Bessemer Process

A process which infused oxygen into the iron creating a faster, stronger, and cheaper product.

Vertical Integration

A business strategy in which a company takes ownership of two or more key stages of its supply chain

J.P. Morgan

First Billion dollar corporation; Buys out smaller fledgling businesses and merges them into larger dominant companies (trusts) that he managed; Bought out Carnegie’s’ steel holdings; Created the United States Steel Company

Gospel of Wealth

An argument that massive accumulations of wealth are not evil but good as they can help and donate to people.

Labor

Grew by 30% during the 1870s; 1/5th due to immigration; ethnic communities developed; Women worked

Thomas Eddison

Created the Direct Current (DC): Lower Voltage, Considered safer, could only travel 1 mile

Nickolas Tesla

Employee of Thomas Edison who created the Alternating Current (AC): Higher Voltage, could transmit higher quantities and farther distances of electricity, enough to power a city

Edison vs. Tesla

Tesla was supposed to win $50,000 after inventing the AC however he never got it so he partnered with financier George Westinghouse; Edison partnered with J.P. Morgan and formed General Electric; Morgan and Edison force Westinghouse and Tesla out of business acquiring all patents and technology; Tesla’s power is what is used today.

Real Wages

Wages adjusted for inflation, or equivalently wages in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought; workweek decreased in hours; Hazardous: 35k deaths and 500k injuries

Depression

Caused a 17% unemployment; Women and children became employed as men went unemployed

Samuel Gompers

Created American Federation of Labor - federation of skilled craft unions, focusing on issues like better wagers and conditions for skilled workers within capitalism

Strike

Protest outside places of employment

Strikes and counter strikes

Caused by workers upset with cost cutting methods, unskilled labor (wages), long hours, and harsh conditions

Owners

____ counter strikes with machines and scabs (a person who works despite an ongoing strike), and non-union labor, which often led to violence.

Homestead Steel Strike

A strike against Carnegie’s Steel company; A private army, the Pinkerton Detectives, were sent to fight the unionists then the governor sent in the militia to dispel the unionists

Henry Clay Frick

Led negations during Homestead Steel Strike; Sent a private army, the Pinkerton Detectives, to fight the unionists; had an attempted assassination by being shot twice and stabbed 3 times, somehow lived

Gilded Age

Coined by Mark Twain; America looked prosperous, but had huge amounts of corruption and social problems (racism)

Urbanization

Chicago and other major cities experience booms in population; caused problem of sanitation and usable water; New transportation: subways, electric trains, trolleys

Tenement housing

Used to house dozens in each tiny room; poor, unsanitary conditions

Jane Adams

Founded the Hull House in response to the poor conditions in Chicago, a settlement house hoping to aid poverty, disease, and political corruption

New Immigrants

Southern and Eastern Europeans: Italians, Polish, Russian jews; became targets for Nativism

Chinese

Came during gold rush to work mines; later constructed railroads, then manufacturing

Chinese Exclusion Act 1882

An act that banned Chinese entry into the US for 10 years; extended another 10 years in 1892

Social Darwinism

Idea introduced by Herbert Spencer; Wealthy people were rich due to being the fittest and should not be prevented from acquiring more wealth

Political Machines

A party organization, headed by a single boss or small autocratic group, that commands enough votes to maintain political and administrative control of a city, county, or state. Ex: Boss Tweed in NYC: Tammany Hall

Thomas Nast

Political Cartoonist who exposed Tweed as a corrupt criminal and took down Tammany Hall

Pendleton Civil Service Act (1863)

A legislation intended to guarantee the rights of all citizens to compete for federal jobs without preferential treatment given based on politics, race, religion, or origin. Tried to stop the spoils system

Interstate Commerce Commission

An agency created to control competition and rates within the railroad industry

Sherman Antitrust Act

A federal statute that prohibits activities that restricted interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace. A way to fight against illegal trusts that created monopolies.

Farmers Alliance

An organization aimed at aiding farmers who were suffering with deflation of prices

Gold Standard

Printed currency based on the quantity of gold held in US preserves. Created deflation and an increase in the value of the dollar.

Populist Party

Left-wing movement that wanted to curtail the power of the corporate and financial establishment.